Nonexistent Democracy

Reading about how 74 percent of Americans do not believe “the goal of overthrowing Iraq’s authoritarian government and establishing a democracy was by itself a good enough reason to go to war” should make all Americans wonder if describing their beloved country as a democracy is still appropriate (“55% reject using force to spread democracy,” Sept. 30).

The American people were misled to support this war when they were forced to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that posed an imminent threat to them. Once the myth of these weapons was dispelled, the Bush administration tried to save its face by claiming that the war was actually fought to bring democracy to an oppressed people.

But now we see that the American people do not want their troops waging war for the sole reason of creating democracies. Yet there is no end in sight for the current war and Bush continues to refuse to announce a deadline for troop withdrawal.

Perhaps whenever a democracy is established in Iraq, the Iraqis can thank us by sending their troops to the United States to reestablish democracy here.